Uranium mining oral history project, 1970-1971
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Collector
- American West Center
- Title
- Uranium mining oral history project
- Dates
- 1970-1971 (inclusive)19701971
- Quantity
- 14.5 linear feet
- Collection Number
- ACCN 1322
- Summary
- The uranium mining oral history project (1970-1971) was conducted under the auspices of the American West Center. The focus of the interviews was documentation of the uranium industry in Utah and Colorado. Among those interviewed were miners, residents of towns affected by the uranium boom, employees of Union Carbide and the Vanadium Corporation of America, Native Americans, and lawyers specializing in mining. The entire collection has been digitized. Click here to view the digitized oral history transcripts.
- Repository
-
University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860
Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
- Languages
- English
Content Description
The uranium mining oral history project (1970-1971) was conducted under the auspices of the American West Center. The focus of the interviews was documentation of the uranium industry in Utah and Colorado. Among those interviewed were miners, residents of towns affected by the uranium boom, employees of Union Carbide and the Vanadium Corporation of America, Native Americans, and lawyers specializing in mining. The entire collection has been digitized. Click here to view the digitized oral history transcripts.
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Use
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.
Preferred Citation
Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Administrative Information
Return to TopDetailed Description of the Collection
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Interviews, Adams to Beyeler
The entire collection has been digitized. Click here to view the digitized oral history transcripts.
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Description: Donald T. Adams
Adams, an attorney and former member of the Utah State Tax and Public Service Commissions, was interviewed by Mitch Haddard. Subjects: personal background, vanadium and uranium mining, uranium boom in Monticello, mining claims, geiger counters, Atomic Energy Commission, anti-trust cases, patents, small miners, problems with mining laws (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 1 -
Description: Jerry Anderson
Anderson, a prospector, was interviewed by Patricia Ray in Salt Lake City. Subjects: personal background, experiences in Marysvale, exploration by father and sons, claims, methods of prospecting (33 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 2 -
Description: Jim Anderson
Kathy Biel interviewed this Navajo miner in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. Subjects: employment, injury in mine, future of mining, royalties, housing, children (22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 3 -
Description: Robert Anderson
Anderson was interviewed by Harry Henslick and Gary L. Shumway in Colorado. Subjects: personal background, fused vs. ferro vanadium, research, breeder reactors, the history of the Vanadium Corporation, Peru properties, Foote Minerals (13 pages, 18 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 1, Folder 4 -
Description: Pearl Baker
Baker spoke with John McFarlane in Green River, Utah. Subjects: horses, springs, the Chaplin family, damage caused by Lake Powell, teaching school in White Canyon, the mill and trading post, parties and diversions, school children, housing, Hanksville, White Canyon characters, Craig Carpenter, drifters, the Pick Mine (53 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 1, Folder 5 -
Description: Robert Baldwin
Mitch Haddard interviewed Baldwin at the Continental Bank Building in Salt Lake City. Subjects: mining law, Navajos and mining, mineral rights and laws, uranium boom, Atomic Energy Commission, uranium claims, violence during the boom, conservation and ecology, large corporations (31 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 6 -
Description: Harold Barton
Barton (b. 1910) spoke with Steve Guttman and John Donnely. Subjects: background, trucking business, school system, uranium mining, penny stocks, Moab (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 7 -
Description: Kenneth Beach
Beach, a native of Moab, was interviewed by Steve Guttman. Subjects: background, bread company, effects of boom, assessor job (37 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 8 -
Description: Bill Joe Begay
Begay, a Navajo miner, was interviewed by Kathy Biel at the Black Hat and Blue Cap Mining camp near La Sal Creek, Colorado. Subjects: school, work, job prospects (3 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 9 -
Description: Marion E. Benedict
Clare Engle interviewed Benedict at the Union Carbide facility in Uravan, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, experiences at the post office during boom years, family, reflections on life at Uravan (18 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 10 -
Description: Michael Benson
Benson was interviewed by Kathy Biel in Shiprock, New Mexico. Subjects: uranium mines, tribal council, education, problems of young Navajos, future employment on reservation, Anglo attitudes, exploitation of Navajos, Bureau of Indian Affairs (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 11 -
Description: Daniel Berman
Mitch Haddard interviewed attorney Daniel Berman in his office in the Kearns building, downtown Salt Lake City. Subjects: background and law schooling, Niseley v. Union Carbide, the Village Theaters case, anti-trust lawyers and litigation (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 12 -
Description: Robert G. Beverly
Clare Engle interviewed Beverly, a director of radiation and pollution control in the mining and metals division of Union Carbide, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, mill processes, Vanadium tailings and mills in the 1950s, effluents, mine safety and regulations, public awareness of hazards, Radon gas levels, workmen's compensation, smoking and lung cancer, silicosis and ventilation, respirators, radium in nature, ecological concerns, reclamation projects, the Arkansas study (81 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 13 -
Description: D. F. Beyeler
Steve Guttman and John Donnely spoke with Beyeler, a veterinarian and county commissioner in Moab, Utah. Subjects: politics, miners, uranium boom, service clubs, county commissioner, drug problem, sewer, zoning problems, airport and highways, pollution (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 1, Folder 14
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Interviews, Billsie to Colvin
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Description: John Billsie
Navajo miner John Billsie spoke with Kathy Biel at his home north of Blanding, Utah. Subjects: mining jobs, teaching graphic arts, jobs on the reservation, being a landowner (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 1 -
Description: Harry Black
Kathy Biel interviewed Black, a Navajo miner, at the Black Hat mining camp. Fern Charley interpreted. Subjects: work, family, job prospects, accidents (7 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 2 -
Description: Everett Blackburn
Blackburn was interviewed by Harry Henslick in Placerville, Colorado. Subjects: how he became interested in mining, experiences on the reservation, job at VCA, his accident, civil suit against FCA and Union Carbide, Monument mine, future of the vanadium industry, DeVar Shumway (29 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 3 -
Description: Robert Blanc
Blanc, the minerals exploration manager for Getty Oil, spoke with Linda West in Costa Mesa, California. Subjects: uranium exploration, AEC, Chama basin, uranium in Canada, uranium boom. (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 4 -
Description: W. H. Bowman
Bowman, a police officer in Moab was interviewed by Steve Guttman. Subjects: personal background, police force, drug abuse, alcoholism, people of Moab, sheriff (10 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 5 -
Description: Norman Boyd
Steve Guttman and John Donnely interviewed Boyd in Moab, Utah. Subjects: personal background, Moab, uranium boom, Charley Stein, moving to Moab, barbershop, mayor, problems while in office, sewer plant, miners, Moab as a retirement spot (48 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 6 -
Description: B. A. Broughton
Broughton, a Moab eye doctor, talked with Steve Guttman. Subjects: moving to Moab, optical practice, problems of Moab, tourism, schools, stocks, Indians, Glaucoma, Mexican-Americans, health care (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 7 -
Description: Winfred Bunce
Bunce, who was a county commissioner during the uranium boom, spoke with Steve Guttman and John Donnely. Subjects: jobs, problems as county commissioner, new jobs in uranium boom, bonds, current problems in Moab, future of Moab, Moab in 1930, penny stocks, lumber business, growth of Moab, accidents (47 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 8 -
Description: Dale Bunker
Harry Henslick interviewed Bunker in Colorado. Subjects: personal background, job availability in the 1930s, mine leases, employing Navajo miners, prospecting, safety standards, Union Carbide, water leaching process. (30 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 9 -
Description: Grant Caldwell
Mitch Haddard interviewed Caldwell, a Certified Public Accountant, in Salt Lake City. Subjects: personal background, Nissly vs. Union Carbide (13 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 10 -
Description: E. R. Carter
Carter, Moab postmaster, spoke with Steve Guttman. Subjects: uranium boom, new mail routes, service during the boom, problems with post office, tourism, effect of large companies on postal service (23 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 11 -
Description: Earl and Golda Chiles
John McFarlane interviewed the Chiles family in Paradox, Colorado. Subjects: early claims and mines, arrowhead hunting, murder and the FBI, striking it rich, promotional schemes, entertainment, large companies and independent miners, Potash and Borax, tailings, expenses connected with drilling and mining (52 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 2, Folder 12 -
Description: Edward W. Clyde
Clyde, an attorney, was interviewed by Mitch Haddard. Subjects: personal background, dealings with uranium industry, problems with obtaining a mining claim, incidence of litigation, staking claims on school sections, conservation and ecology, problems in mining law, land and mining laws, minerals, human resources of the U.S.
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 13 -
Description: Curtis Colvin
Colvin, a chemist, was interviewed by Gary Shumway in Provo, Utah. Subjects: personal background, experiences at Hanford atomic plant. solvent extraction process, people at Hanford, changes in companies, experiences with the federal government, breeder reactors (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 2, Folder 14
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Interviews, Corbin to Gastwieth
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Description: John Wallace Corbin
Steve Guttman interviewed Corbin, president of Midland Telephone Company, in Moab, Utah. Subjects: personal background, penny stocks, problems of Moab, expansion, future of Moab, uranium boom, floating bonds, housing, tourism, cables, work force, expansion and growth, regulations, uranium-related businesses (37 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 1 -
Description: Eugene Cramer
Cramer spoke with Linda West at the Edison Building in Los Angeles, California. Subjects: breeder reactors, research, sites, safety and health standards, contamination and waste, arguments against reactors, procedures, safety, the AEC (50 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 3, Folder 2 -
Description: Leonard O. Davis
Suzanne Simon spoke with Davis and his wife in Casa Grande, Arizona. Subjects: White Canyon, uranium prospectors, roads, Charlie Abrams and the ferry, the mill process, accidents, housing for miners, Doc Williamsen, recreation, fuel and transportation, boating on the river, speculation, early days of uranium and vanadium mining, life at Naturita (68 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 3, Folder 3 -
Description: Warren R. Deck
Suzanne Simon interviewed Deck in Bluff, Utah. Subjects: cattle, diptheria, sheep, oil boom, old wagon road, Hereford cows, a flood, rock houses, uranium mills, a road for the reservation, water issues in San Juan county, water in Denver and cities in Arizona (50 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 3, Folder 4 -
Description: Adam M. Duncan
Duncan, an attorney, was interviewed by Mitch Haddad in Salt Lake City. Subjects: uranium mining industry securities, penny stocks and uranium company shells, types of mining claims, the Gillette, Wyoming "new gold rush," multi-use of federal lands, Charlie Steen, Milton Love (SEC Commissioner), Canyonlands, typical prospector, Stella Dysart, government subsidies, shell game, gambling (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 5 -
Description: Norman Ebbley
Ebbley spoke with Gregg Brolin in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: evaluating uranium potential, changes in drilling techniques, samples, inequities associated with the AEC, independent miners, government vs. private exploration, collective bargaining agencies (18 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 6 -
Description: Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Ellinwood
Ellinwood, the company doctor for Union Carbide in Uravan, spoke with Clare Engle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: early schooling, physician in Uravan, people, mining accidents, water pollution, housing, radioactivity, smokers and lung cancer, social life and recreation, church and community factions, medical compensation, lawlessness, schools, public health, air pollution (54 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 7 -
Description: Lester Erbes
Steve Guttman interviewed Erbes, a broadcaster, in Moab. Subjects: personal background, recreational activities, television station, Moab as tourist center, poverty, politics, problems in Moab, future of Moab, Canyonlands (40 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 8 -
Description: Leon Frazier
Mitch Haddard interviewed Frazier, a Provo attorney, twice. Subjects: personal background, uranium mining, ecology concerns, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), public lands, mining law, litigation, property ownership and patents, state regulations, mining corporations, problems of small miners (23 pages, 49 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 9 -
Description: John Galley
Harry Henslick interviewed Galley in Nucla, Colorado. Subjects: photographs, Joe Jr. Camp, Joe Dandy camp, water power, character profiles, hauling out ore (9 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 10 -
Description: Jimmy Garnenez
Garnenez, a Navajo ore hauler and businessman, spoke with Harry Henslick and Kathy Biel in Shiprock, New Mexico. Subjects: personal background, schooling of Navajo children, businesses, hauling business, industry on the reservation, tribal council revenue from Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA), getting business loans (37 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 11 -
Description: Mr. and Mrs. Martin Gastwieth
The Gastwieths spoke with Patricia Ray at their home in Cypress, California. Subjects: how they got involved in the uranium industry and obtained property, family, recreational activities (16 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 3, Folder 12
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Interviews, Gibbon to Hayne
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Description: Francis Gibbon
Gibbon, a partner with the law firm of Senior and Senior, which specializes in natural resource law, spoke with Mitch Haddard in Salt Lake City. Subjects: legal matters dealing with uranium mining, patenting claims, mining law, overlapping claims, large corporations and individual miners, reviving old claims, penny stocks, public land law (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 1 -
Description: Serge Golian
Clare Engle interviewed Golian in Santa Ana, California. Subjects: childhood and MIT, radar in Britain, jerry-rigged devices, Battle of Britain, the war in Germany and the Far East, paratroopers, German research on the A-bomb and rockets, cosmic ray research, atomic energy, submarines, nuclear testing in the Pacific, radiation shielding, Hiroshima bomb, dangers of reactors, public perception, the environment and the cold war, earthquake theory, waste disposal, isotopes for pasteurization, medical applications, agricultural applications, radioactive dating, neutron analysis and the U. S. Navy, future applications (84 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 2 -
Description: Ernie Gordon
Gordon, a specialist in mining operations, talked with Rich Gibbs and Greg Brolin. Subjects: Vernon Pick's mine, the role of the AEC on the Colorado Plateau, early years of exploration, and reflections on his time at the AEC. In a second conversation, he covers his personal background, how large finds changed the industry, type of groundwork done by geologists, private versus AEC explorations, methods of ore sampling, the problem of disequalibrium, Mexico and South America, the importance of exploration and drilling, bribing geologists (19 pages, 57 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 3 -
Description: J. Thomas Greene
Greene, a Salt Lake City attorney, was interviewed by Mitch Haddard. Subjects: personal background and schooling, mining law, penny stocks, claims, uranium boom, anti-trust, patenting claims, environmental factors (26 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 4 -
Description: E. W. Grutt
Richard Gibbs and Greg Broline interviewed Grutt at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: equilibrium in uranium, AEC programs, exploration, private vs. AEC exploration, other minerals associated with uranium, future of ore reserves in the West (20 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 5 -
Description: W. E. Haggard
Haggard spoke with Dorothy Erick at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, experience in the mines, hauling ore, flash floods, drilling (in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado), conditions necessary for ore, Elk Ridge, radiation (74 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 4, Folder 6 -
Description: Marge and William Everet Haldane
Clare Engle interviewed the Haldanes in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: uranium plants in the 1940s, army engineers, Manhattan district, exploration program and the VCA, the boom, fixed scales and unfair pricing, conflict with oil leases, Mr. Burwell, the demise of VCA, the town of Uravan, Doc Haldane, family situation, politics and unions, crime, individual miners (62 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 7 -
Description: Robert V. Hancock
Hancock spoke with Suzanne Simon and Dorothy E. Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: F. A. Sitton, White Canyon Mining Company, assaying the ore, radium king, claim jumping, hiring miners, shuttlecars and front-end loaders, using airplane for prospecting, Union Carbide, the AEC, health hazards, ventilation problems, federal mining regulations (44 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 8 -
Description: Cleone Bronson Cooper Hansen
Hansen spoke with Dorothy Erick in Monticello, Utah. Subjects: winter work at the Happy Jack, psychological effects of prospecting and mining, pioneer family, the ferry, medicine and supplies in Monticello, the boom, selling the mine, family optimism, sellers and buyers, mine safety, transportation (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 9 -
Description: John Hansen
Hansen, director of the San Juan County Navajo Adult Basic Education (ABE) program was interviewed by Kathy Biel. Subjects: background of the ABE, non-verbal communication, attitudes and values of Navajos, school, Native American Church, missionary experiences, problems, vocational training, student advisory council (31 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 10 -
Description: Duncan Harrison
Harrison was interviewed by Richard Gibbs. Subjects: personal background, involvement with the uranium industry, Blanding and Uravan during the boom, mining, vanadium production, litigation, Lackaluker Mining Company, Hidden Splendor Mining Company, independent miners during the boom, AEC leasing program, safety of mines (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 11 -
Description: H. J. Harvey
Clare Engle interviewed Harvey in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: mining districts at Uravan, mining techniques, ventilation, rotation of miners, open pit mines, ecology and public awareness, smoking and mining (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 12 -
Description: Louis Hayne
Hayne was interviewed by Mitch Haddard in Salt Lake City. Subjects: personal background, problems in securities, the Salt Lake Exchange, Charlie Steen, shell game (18 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 4, Folder 13
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Interviews, Hendricksen to Jones
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Description: Sigird Hendricksen
Clare Engle spoke with Mr. Hendricksen in Los Angles, California. Subjects: early life, background check for the Manhattan Project, Camp Handford, secrecy and the atomic bomb, accidents, physicists, shipping of plutonium, isotopes for agriculture, retirement (40 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 1 -
Description: Donald R. Hill
Hill spoke with Greg Brolin and Richard Gibbs at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, the AEC, qualifications for obtaining an AEC lease (7 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 2 -
Description: John and Lorraine Hill
Clare Engle interviewed Hill, the retired general manager of the mining and metals division at Union Carbide, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Mrs. Hill also contributed to the interview. Subjects: first job at Climax, second job at Uravan, facilities in 1936, social life, medicine, buying and selling ore, the Manhattan District and Weber Report, other mines and miners, Union Carbide in Western Colorado (47 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 3 -
Description: Donald Hitland
Rich Gibbs and Greg Brolin interviewed Hitland at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, working for the AEC, depositions, reconnaissance procedures, AEC exploration during boom, tools for exploration, small miners claims, Colorado Plateau, future of uranium deposits (16 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 4 -
Description: Joseph E. Hopkins Jr.
Hopkins, a mining engineer for Union Carbide, spoke with Clare Engle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: Alaska, VCA in Colorado, Slim Lundquist, boom years, the Manhattan Project, building plants, the Atomic Energy Commission, problems, housing, wives of miners, chief engineer (47 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 5 -
Description: John Horsely
Horsely, an attorney, was interviewed by Mitch Haddard in Salt Lake City. Subjects: personal background, uranium mining and the law, abstract of titles, litigation over claims, prospectors and mining laws, patenting a claim, conservation and ecology, outdated mining laws (22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 6 -
Description: Andrew Hunt
Gary Shumway interviewed Hunt in Hanksville, Utah. Subjects: personal background, working with Scorups, White Canyon copper mine, crossing the Colorado on horseback, uranium industry, method of determining percentages, problems with mining, "The Bluebird" uranium claim, Vernon Pick and the Delta mine, copper claims in the Henry Mountains (20 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 7 -
Description: Kay Hunt
Hunt talked with Gary Shumway. Subjects: Vernon Pick, experience with the AEC, Union Carbide, vanadium mining, family involvements, prospecting during the boom, Circle Cliffs area (46 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 8 -
Description: Ray Hunt
Kathy Biel interviewed Hunt at his trading post in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, previous jobs, Aneth Oil royalties trial, uranium mining in Monument Valley, Navajos working on the railroad, Navajo problems and attitudes, Indian traders, discovery of Rainbow Bridge, John Wetherill (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 9 -
Description: Elmer Hurst
Hurst was interviewed by Kathy Biel and Dorothy Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, mining experience, contracting business, radon levels, Navajo employees and problems, tribal council, superstitions, wages, Navajo leadership, uranium royalties (42 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 10 -
Description: W. Spencer Hutchinson
Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin interviewed Hutchinson at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, duties at the AEC, access road program, lawsuits against the AEC, reflections on years spent at AEC (18 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 11 -
Description: Carlos L. Hyde
Hyde spoke with Suzanne Simon in Monticello, Utah. Subjects: personal background, types of mines, hazards in the mills, Happy Jack mine, Fry Canyon, explosives, accidents, isolation, recreation, ore processing, the closure of the Happy Jack, Lake Powell, Highway 95 (27 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 12 -
Description: Kay P. Johnson
Johnson was interviewed by Suzanne Simon at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: Bridge One mine, service in World War II, trucking business, college, trading post, health hazards, helping stake claims, Gilbert Shumway's involvement with the Happy Jack, VCA pilot plant (20 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 13 -
Description: Alma Jones
Jones was interviewed by Kathy Biel at her home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: how her family came to Blanding, relations with the Navajos, schooling of Navajos, Navajo attitudes toward Whites, mining and prospecting, problems with Navajo work and attitude toward money, trading with Navajos, welfare program, legal problems on the reservation (42 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 5, Folder 14 -
Description: Cardon Jones
Suzanne Simon and Dorothy Erick talked with Jones in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, grandparents in Bluff, first uranium found, Red Canyon claims, Goat Pasture claims, ranching in Colorado, Canyonlands, Escalante Trail, Jacob Adams, Butch Cassidy and Mat Wonger, Joe Bush, Dr. Park, and Howard Williams (42 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 5, Folder 15
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Interviews, Kazzie to Lewis
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Description: Dan Kazzie
Kathy Biel and Harry Henslick interviewed this Navajo miner and ore hauler at his home in Cane Valley, Utah. Subjects: working for the V.C.A. mines, accidents (9 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 1 -
Description: Ned Kazzie
Kathy Biel and Harry Henslick interviewed Kazzie, a Navajo miner and ore hauler. Fern Charley translated. Subjects: personal background, the accident that left him paralysed, mining accidents, working conditions, children (6 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 2 -
Description: Thomas E. Keele
Suzanne Simon spoke with Keele at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, the Depression, CC camp, Uravan, Madame Curie mine, mining processes, Manhattan Project, metals reserve, Monument Two mine, trucking for VCA, AEC bonus, South Elk Ridge Uranium Company, Happy Jack mine, Myron Free's store in White Canyon, boom period, cost of drilling, early prospecting, Charlie Steen (45 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 3 -
Description: M. H. Kerr
Kerr, director of the Utah State Tax Commission, talked with Mitch Haddard in Salt Lake City. Subjects: assessment of taxes, tax laws, small mining companies, problems with tax assessment (24 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 4 -
Description: Jack Kissinger
Kissinger, a machinist for Union Carbide, spoke with Clare Engel in Uravan, Colorado. Subjects: the union at Union Carbide, Navajos, workers at Uravan, fraternal organizations, union benefits, grievance committee (15 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 5 -
Description: Nathan B. Knight, Jr.
Knight, a native of Moab, was interviewed by Suzanne Simon. Subjects: prospecting for uranium, Kunkle-Dunsen Vanadium Mining Company, mining equipment, building roads, tractor accident, 1950s best years for miners, benefits of the AEC program, mining camps, flying (30 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 6 -
Description: S. L. Lake
Lake, an engineer at Union Carbide, spoke with Richard Gibb in Golden, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, ore sampling, Union Carbide, uranium tailings, metallurgy in Grand Junction, miners, the AEC (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 7 -
Description: Walter Langenbaugh
Langenbaugh spoke with Suzanne Simon in Cortez, Colorado. Subjects: family and pioneer background, homesteading, school and church, ranching, sawmill jobs (19 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 8 -
Description: Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Larrison
Larrison, a chemist for Union Carbide, and his wife, a nurse, spoke with Clare Engle in Uravan, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, Uranium and Vanadium, medical situation in Uravan, school, church, village missions, volunteer work, facilities, housing, recreation, town spirit (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 9 -
Description: John C. LeBret
LeBret was interviewed at the office of the Midnite Mines in Spokane, Washington, by Nancy Hunsaker. Subjects: personal background, discovery and milling of the Midnight Mine, locations of deposits in the area, leasing, descriptions of ore, legal problems, effect of uranium on the stock market, other mineral mining in the area (17 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 10 -
Description: James B. Lee
Lee was interviewed by Mitch Haddard. Subjects: legal cases involving uranium, patenting, mining methods and laws, violence over claims, conflicting claims, conservation and ecology, safety requirements, patenting, revitalizing old claims, mining laws (38 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 11 -
Description: Lynn Lee
Lee, the director of Indian Education and Rehabilitation for San Juan school district, was interviewed by Kathy Biel. Subjects: Indian education, the Headstart Program, bilingual education, attitudes toward school, adult education, the BIA and public schools, Indian college students (42 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 12 -
Description: Elbert E. Lewis
Richard Gibbs spoke with Lewis at the offices of E.E. Lewis, Inc., a subsidiary of Beaver Mesa Uranium. Subjects: personal background, uranium mining, Moab during the boom, health concerns, tailings, ore sampling (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 6, Folder 13
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Interviews, Livingston to Moore
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Description: Walter Livingston
Livingston was interviewed by Richard Gibbs and Clare Engel. Subjects: personal background, early mining experiences, theories of uranium deposits, sources of uranium, Union Mines Development Company, patent for leaching uranium ore, the Morrison Formation, Manhattan Project, people in the industry, uranium deposits on Temple Mountain, Union Mines Survey of the Morrison Formation, Livingston's in situ leaching process, equipment used in the in situ leaching process (51 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 1 -
Description: John W. Lowe
Lowe spoke with Mitch Haddard at his office in the Walker Bank Building in Salt Lake City. Subjects: legal background, uranium claims cases, mining law and patents, leasing of claims, conflicting claims, courts, large corporations and mining, assessment of claims, shell game, penny stocks, anti-trust litigation, mining and the environment (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 2 -
Description: Carl Mahon
Suzanne Simon interviewed Mahon at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: Mahon's early interest in mining, prospecting and the boom, Montezuma Creek, naive prospectors, red-hot claims, development, Peate claims, the Happy Jack mine, Navajo miners, the "red-headed woman," milling, the Sandy mine, a job with the Bureau of Land Management, bighorn sheep sightings, hunts, water, a ewe named Mabel, lambs, Father Escalante (79 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 3 -
Description: Jimmie Manheimer
Manheimer, a Navajo miner, was interviewed by Milan Pavlovitch, Kathy Biel, and Jeff Jones. Subjects: mining accidents, personal background, trees in mines, sawmill job, children (26 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 4 -
Description: Dan and Leon Marsing
Suzanne Simon interviewed the Marsings at their home in Moab, Utah. Subjects: working at the mill, the ferry, learning to fly, the Happy Jack, Bronson and Cooper, extracting ore, Free's store, living conditions, airplane adventures, flying bishop, road conditions, transient miners, working conditions and safety policy, crops, company nurse, Rattlesnake Ridge claim, tailings (41 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 5 -
Description: Chester Martin
Clare Engel interviewed Martin in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: employment with Union Carbide, the atomic bomb, peacetime uses of atomic energy, pollution, government compensation, AEC bonuses, economic ups and downs, small miners, investments, competition, contract miners, safety, the school and the mill, camp layout, unions and management, layoffs, cost of maintaining Uravan, company benefits, problems (81 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 6 -
Description: S. A. Mayer
Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin talked with Mayer at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: radiation in mines, uranium business, AEC and leasing (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 7 -
Description: Maurice McCabe
Kathy Biel interviewed McCabe in his office at the Navajo Office of Economic Opportunity. Subjects: personal background and schooling, tribal renenues, mills and leases to miners, unions and labor, Navajo nationalism, education, industry (21 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 8 -
Description: Daniel L. Meyer
Meyer spoke with Mitch Haddard at his office in the Kearns Building in Salt Lake City. Subjects: personal background, mining industry, government, federal land ownership, Standard Oil, consulting firm, fuels, Utah's land policy on minng, uranium market, mining laws, rights, and patents, leasing of public land, pollution and mining, small miners and mining law, mining coporations, public land laws (66 pages, 18 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 9 -
Description: Ralph Miller Jr.
Steve Guttman and John Donnely interviewed Miller at his grocy store in Moab, Utah. Subjects: boyhood in Moab, grocery business in the uranium boom, credit problems, employees, produce, meats, transportation, telephone company, tourism, civic affairs, problems while on city council, competition with City Market, future of Moab (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 10 -
Description: H. Byron Mock
Mitch Haddard interviewed this Salt Lake City attorney. Subjects: personal background, experience with uranium law, patenting uranium claims, Atomic Energy Commission, large uranium companies, preservation and ecology, marketability test, antiquated mining laws, property, mineral, leasing, and grazing rights (47 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 11 -
Description: J. P. Moore
Moore, the chief chemist for Union Carbide, was interviewed in Grand Junction, Colorado, by Clare Engle. Subjects: uses for uranium, war-time industry, reactivating Uravan, separation processes, Union Carbide, new processes and projects, old methods of separation (22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 12 -
Description: Mary L. Moore, M.D.
Clare Engle spoke with Dr. Moore in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: childhood and schooling, World War II, company doctor in Uravan, living conditions and contract (11 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 7, Folder 13
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Interviews, Munro to Pruitt
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Description: John R. J. Munro
Munro spoke with Clare Engle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, Uranium and Vanadium, Laird Burwell, Uravan, mining history, important figures in the industry, health, women, retirement (22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 1 -
Description: C. J. Nielsen, Keith Guyman, et al.
Suzanne Simon interviewed Nielson and Guyman at the Happy Jack mine in Fry Canyon, Utah. Following the interview, other miners joined the discussion. Subjects: mining accidents, Marquis mine, Rebel mine, Happy Jack mine, Blue Lizard mine, mill in Monticello, Bull's-Eye mine, the Marines and a flash flood, Shumway's mines, room sizes and supports, horses in the mines, mining as a way of life (38 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 2 -
Description: Ralph J. Noonan
Noonan, a miner and prospector, was interviewed by Dorothy Erick and Suzanne Simon in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: the radio-geophysical technique, schooling, radon detection equipment, exploring the Shumway property, Elk Ridge, the Happy Jack mine, radioactivity at the mills, the VCA pilot mill, business dealings with the Shumway family, personal mining ventures, experiences with Navajos, miners and working conditions, mining camps, efficiency and costs ( 78 pages) He later talked with Kathy Biel about his Navajo partner, Johnny Delsey. Subjects: Navajos and money, Red Sky, cultural differences, a rape trial, Navajo wages (9 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 3 -
Description: Claude E. Nugent
Nugent was interviewed by Suzanne Simon at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background; packtrain to remote areas in Idaho; education at the University of Idaho; Callahan Company; lead/zinc mine in Coeur d'Alene mining district; government reserve around Uravan, Colorado; Navajo miners; mining the Monde Butte formation; Wyoming; mining camps and equipment; ventilation; mine inspections; cost of drilling (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 4 -
Description: Dwight Oliver
Oliver was interviewed by Harry Henslick in Norwood, Colorado. Subjects: hauling ore by wagon, prospecting, vanadium and uranium on the Colorado Plateau, working in the mines, Denny Viles, taxes on miners, drilling (40 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 5 -
Description: Olin Oliver
Suzanne Simon interviewed Oliver in Bluff, Utah. Subjects: Ute Indian War in Bluff, outlaws, "the ditch," public health, colonizing, the United Order, driving teams on San Juan hill, sheep and cattle, the Navajo and Ute wars, Posey and the White Men, guns, predators, wells, Uranium and Oil booms (35 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 8, Folder 6 -
Description: Robert S. Palmer
Richard Gibbs interviewed Palmer, manager and executive director of the Colorado Mining Association. Subjects: AEC's policy on domestic uranium procurement, big business and the uranium industry, competency of the AEC, AEC's leasing policy, radon dotter danger, drilling, E. L. Cord property, trends in the uranium industry, eccentricities of people, looking back (36 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 7 -
Description: Tony Perkins
Perkins, a Navajo prospector and miner, was interviewed by Kathy Biel, Milan Pavlovich, and Jeff Jones. Subjects: personal background, mining experience, dynamite, pulling pillars, superstitions, mining on the reservation, cheating of Indians, tribal council, Navajos and money, gold mining, assays, stocks during boom, affirmative action, prospecting for gold ore, prospecting for uranium (61 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 8 -
Description: Mars Pope
Pope talked with Steve Guttman in the commissioner's office of the county courthouse in Moab, Utah. Subjects: effect of boom on power company, expansion, mines and power, accidents, road conditions, water shortage, county budget, housing problems, teenagers, airport (52 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 9 -
Description: Alfred and Betty Pritchard
Suzanne Simon interviewed the Pritchards in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, life in mining camps, Fry Canyon, White Canyon, Payday repair shop, the AEC, road crews, flash floods, accidents, maintenance (29 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 10 -
Description: Robert Pruitt
Mitch Haddard interviewed Pruitt, a geologist and lawyer, in Salt Lake City. Subjects: geological work for the government, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of the Interior, granting patents, mining law, small miners, large corporations, anti-trust litigation, conservation and ecology, technology (59 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 8, Folder 11
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Interviews, Quackenbush to Shipman
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Description: Ruth M. Quackenbush
Clare Engle interviewed Quackenbush, secretary to the plant superintendent at Union Carbide's Uravan facility. Subjects: various jobs, schools and recreation, politics, Union Carbide, special education (19 pages).
Dates: 1972Container: Box 9, Folder 1 -
Description: Dick Randall
Kathy Biel spoke with Randall at the Black Hat and Blue Cap mining camp at LaSalle Creek, Colorado. Fern Charley interpreted. Subjects: mining experience, schooling of family, savings, royalties to tribal council, mining accidents (6 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 2 -
Description: Michael Reinhardt
Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin interview Reinhardt in Grand Junction. Subjects: personal background, drilling for uranium, surveying, La Sal Mountains, uranium industry, job with Atomic Energy Commission, Beaver Mesa, job with Serro De Pasco, Charlie Steen (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 3 -
Description: Calvin Rawlings
Mitch Haddard spoke with this Salt Lake attorney in his office. Subjects: legal aspects of uranium mining, uranium market, penny stocks, court cases, health concerns of miners, Vanadium Corporation of America (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 4 -
Description: J. Wiley Redd
Redd spoke with Gary Shumway, Suzanne Simon, and Dorothy Erick at his home in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: personal background, Mormon settlement in Mexico, Indian fights, death of Charles Posey, marriage, Hideout mine, Natural Bridges, AEC bonuses, mining stock, Lily Redd (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 5 -
Description: Preston Redd
Redd spoke with Gary Shumway, Suzanne Simon, and Dorothy Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: family and ancestors, cattle ranching, chases, John Weatherall, problems with Indians, Mitchell and Merrick mine, John Keith, sheep on Navajo land, Bill Long, Monument One and Two claims, Posey mine, other claims, Fry Canyon, copper mining, Myron Feree, bear hunting (68 pages, 22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 6 -
Description: Ray R. Reynolds
Reynolds spoke with Suzanne Simon in Fry Canyon, Utah. Subjects: early mining jobs, Moab and uranium mining, Temple Mountain, Hideout mine, future of uranium (22 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 7 -
Description: Andrew Riddle
John McFarlane interviewed Andrew Riddle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: Paradox Valley, the Yellow Bird and Cashin mines, the Depression and debt, burros, wild horses, radium and vanadium, ranching, the stock market crash, uranium boom, closing of the mill (35 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 9, Folder 8 -
Description: Gilmor C. Ritter
Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin interviewed Ritter at the AEC compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: Union Mines Survey, early years on the Colorado Plateau, qualifications for obtaining and AEC lease, disadvantages of an AEC lease, uranium ore purchasing policy, experience in the uranium industry (31 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 9 -
Description: Clarence D. Rogers
Rogers (b. 1906) was interviewed by Suzanne Simon and Dorothy Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: the Poke and Posey War of 1915, colonization of Blanding, "the ditch," homesteading, stock raising, catching Mavericks, branding, modern-day ranching, state and federal grazing policies, the "red calf" incident, John Rogers and sheep raising, prospecting and staking claims, outsiders, geologists, surveyors, placer mining on the Colorado, Lake Powell, the discovery of Rainbow Bridge, Zane Grey, Professor Gregory, Hovenweep, Zeke Johnson, massacre near White Canyon, death of Posey, Clarence D. Rogers (82 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 10 -
Description: Marshall W. Scott
Scott was interviewed by Clare Engle, Greg Brolin, and Rich Gibbs at the Union Carbide office in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: years with the AEC, Union Carbide subcontractors, dealings with the AEC, exploration with Union Carbide, contracts, the job today (16 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 11 -
Description: Cato Sells
Sells, a Navajo prospector, mine owner, contractor, and the Superintendent of Water Development for the Navajo tribe, spoke with Kathy Biel in his office at Fort Defiance. Subjects: personal background, mining business, uranium on the reservation, Navajo workers, Climax Corporation, prospects for more mining (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 12 -
Description: Mark E. Shipman
Shipman was interviewed by Richard Gibbs in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: professional background, opinion of the AEC, opinion on whether miners cheated on ore samples, safety specifications, AEC leases (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 9, Folder 13
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Interviews, Shumway
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Description: Bruce Shumway
Kathy Biel interviewed Bruce Shumway, director of Social Services Region Eight, in Blanding. Subjects: Social Service programs, Navajo children in White homes, Navajos moving off reservation, employment opportunities for Navajos, changing attitudes, problems adjusting to urban living, housing, Navajo miners (31 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 1 -
Description: Dean Shumway
Gary Shumway interviewed Dean in Provo, Utah, on 9 August and 12 August. Subjects: personal background, lifetime involvement with uranium industry, prospecting on the reservation, Monument Number Two Mine, recollections of the boom, Sandy Mine, how people spent their money, Rex claims, close calls, working for Grant [Shumway], Agathla, mining in Grants, New Mexico, reasons for leaving mining, Bob Schriever (54 pages, 67 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 2 -
Description: Devar Shumway
Shumway, a mine owner and prospector, was interviewed by Clare Engle in Orchard Mesa, Colorado, and Kathy Biel in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: early mining days, government agencies, horses in the mines, World War II and the atomic bomb, competing with Union Carbide, Red Canyon, innacurate assays and other dishonest practices, boom years, "black box" incident, future of the Colorado Pleateau, clean-up contractors, Navajos as miners, Navajos and Whites working together, dependability of Navajos, superstitions, future of mining on the reservation (74 pages, 32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 3 -
Description: Gary L. Shumway
Shumway spoke with Suzanne Simon in Anaheim, California. Subjects: His father's start in Uranium mining, the Dream mine, selling early claims, restaking and later claims, other claimants in Cottonwood, class structure in Blanding, his grandfather and great-grandfather, prospecting at age three, the Hideout mine, the Redd family, prospecting before geiger counters, Elk Mountain, mining and assessment work, camp and lizards, the mill, driller's helper at age sixteen, lifestyle at the camp, swimming, girls and parties, supplies, gambling, transportation, medical emergencies, problems with VCA, Fennel Sitton, a lawsuit, oxidized uranium ore, King Edwards mine, King James mine, old equipment and a mishap, the end of his mining (120 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 4 -
Description: Glen A. Shumway
Glen Shumway spoke with Suzanne Simon in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: family claims, hauling devices, leases, Atomic Energy Commission, uranium market, White Canyon town (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 5 -
Description: Grant L. Shumway
Dorothy Erick interviewed Shumway, a geologist, in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: Elk Ridge mine, the bust, nuclear power plants, pollution, international market, large corporations and small miners, health and safety, future of nuclear power, geology and prospecting, geiger counter, airplanes, Navajo regulations (57 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 6 -
Description: Harold Eugene Shumway
Dorothy Erick and Suzanne Simon interviewed Shumway in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: family mines, Monument Two mine, Cord mine, Navajo miners and welfare, AEC bonuses, mines in the Cottonwood area, Pillard mining, shipping ore to the mills, blow sand, smelting and milling, depressed markets and the small miner, royalties on mines, the Shumway family and mining, mining equipment, government standards, discovery methods, mining as a lifestyle, hobbies and recreation, stocks and overspeculation, Charlie Steen, Mr. Pick, Ray Ransom, the death of Mr. Schreiber, Thayne Robinson, Vernon Black, Claude Nugent, "Old Chandler," Bernard Black, the Maybe mine, the Happy Jack mine, Dr. Stokes, mining techniques, the future of mining, mining towns, the stock boom, success of locals, oral histories (114 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 7 -
Description: Harris Shumway
Suzanne Simon talked with Shumway in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: mining in the 1920s, pilot mill in Big Indian Country, prospecting, lawsuits, traveling by jeep, Denny Viles, small miners (26 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 8 -
Description: Kenneth Shumway
Suzanne Simon interviewed Shumway in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: mining before the boom, mining accidents, Payday mine, assessment, AEC policies, uranium prices, misleading ore, White Canyon colony, Denny Vowles (31 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 9 -
Description: Lee Shumway
Shumway spoke with Suzanne Simon and Dorothy Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: prospecting, location of claims, Mr. Balsely of Moab, VCA mill in Monticello, the Atomic Energy Commission, ore production processes, shinarump in White and Red Canyons, dealing with VCA, AEC bonus, greenhorn promoters in the boom, successful miners, hazards of weather and terrain (27 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 10 -
Description: Merwin Shumway
Shumway spoke with Dorothy Erick in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: mining as a family business, selling claims, Ridge One group, VCA, mining accidents, dishonest chemists, the LDS influence in Blanding (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 11 -
Description: Seth Shumway
Gary Shumway and Suzanne Simon interviewed Seth Shumway in Blanding, Utah. Subjects: early settlement, prospecting, the Lonesome claim, trapping for the government, Happy Jack mine, Hideout claim, White Canyon claims, Fennel Sitton, Payday and Lick mines, Elk Ridge, digging ruins and selling artifacts, family pictures (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 10, Folder 12
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Interviews, Silver to Tomsic
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Description: Estalee Silver
Clare Engle interviewed Silver in Uravan, Colorado. Subjects: housing in Uravan, social groups, schools, bussing, the local Parent-Teacher Association, high school and the Navajos, mail delivery, false bonanzas (33 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 1 -
Description: Allan Simpson
Clare Engle, Greg Brolin, and Richard Gibbs interviewed Simpson, a mining engineer, at his home in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, cheating on ore samples, drilling on Beaver Mountain, mine safety, AEC's leasing policy, Uranium Ore Producers Association, Uravan, Union Carbide exploration (30 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 2 -
Description: Jimmie Singer
Singer, a Navajo miner, spoke briefly with Kathy Biel about his work experiences and mining accidents (8 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 3 -
Description: Lewis Smith
Smith talked with Steve Guttman about natural gas service in the Moab area. Subjects: Public Service Commission, gas line, work force, Moab, Monticello (19 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 4 -
Description: Harry Sombrero
Sombrero, a young Navajo miner, spoke with Kathy Biel about his schooling and the Navajo police force (6 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 5 -
Description: Esther Somerville
Somerville, a Moab school teacher, was interviewd by Steve Guttman. Subjects: background, job as city recorder, claims, uranium boom and Moab, schools, post office, other counties (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 6 -
Description: Germaine Steele
Steele spoke with Clare Engle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: schooling in Uravan, parents and teachers, high school, activities, minorities, the "old house," tailings and health hazards, lung cancer, radiation, community activities, poaching and food, women employees, graduates, politics (55 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 7 -
Description: Raymond Sullivan
Sullivan, a mining engineer, spoke with Clare Engle in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: mining in the 1940s, the Manhattan Project, discoveries on the Colorado Plateau, forming a company, the AEC and VCA, drilling at Calamity, Charlie Steen, air drilling and Tungsten-Carbide bits, USGS and AEC supervision, buying and selling ore, the Geiger counter, opportunities and current activities (47 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 8 -
Description: Robert Sundwall
Sundwall was interviewed by Steve Guttman. Subjects: job as school principal, problems of boom, effect of boom on education (11 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 9 -
Description: Eugene Tapahonso
Kathy Biel spoke with seventy-three year old Eugene Tapahonso at his home in Shiprock, New Mexico. Subjects: personal background, staking claims, Navajo workers, sheep reduction program, schools, oil and uranium royalties, tribal council, Navajos and Utes, young Navajos, Navajos and Anglos, his farm, army experience, land rights, mining accidents (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 10 -
Description: Samuel Taylor
Samuel Taylor, of the Moab Times-Independent, spoke with Steven Guttman. Subjects: the newspaper, uranium boom, Moab's isolation, Moab as a tourist spot, environment, police, water system, drug use, teaching positions (32 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 11 -
Description: John K. "Jack" Thamm
Thamm, an employee of Union Carbide, was interviewed by Clare Engle and Richard Gibbs. Subjects: the Uravan Mineral Belt, bearing formations, drilling, theory of uranium deposition, costs of drilling (20 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 12 -
Description: Cecil Thompson
Steve Guttman and John Donnely spoke with Cecil Thompson (b. 1899), a native of Moab and member of the Utah State Land Board. Subjects: trucking business, uranium boom, water supply, miners, alcoholism, grubstaking, uranium stocks, Frontier Airlines, tourism, dams, state lands, potash plants, uranium mines, politics, El Paso Gas line (46 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 11, Folder 13 -
Description: Ralph Thul
Thul, a safety engineer at Union Carbide, spoke with Clare Engle in Uravan, Colorado. Subjects: water, people of Uravan, safety, contract miners, smoking, utilities, Navajos, maintenance of company property, qualifying for housing, flat tops and bunkhouses, schools, recruiting teachers, racism, disposal of mill waste, public relations (65 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 14 -
Description: Marjorie Tomsic
Tomsic, a member of the school board, talked with Steve Guttman in Moab, Utah. Subjects: personal background, Moab businesses, uranium boom, school board, district problems, vocational education, teachers, bonds, problems with utilities (46 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 11, Folder 15
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Interviews, Tranter to Zoldak
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Description: Theodore Toren
Toren spoke with Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin at the Atomic Energy Commission compound in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, Monticello, access road program, ore sampling, ventilation in mines (14 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 1 -
Description: T. Dee Tranter
Steve Guttman interviewed Tranter, affiliated with the radio station in Moab. Subjects: personal background, changes in Moab, tourism, future of Moab, radio station, drug problems, police, politics, editorials, trailer courts, advertising (35 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 2 -
Description: William R. Walker and Eugene M. Cramer
Kathleen Biel interviewed Walker (manager of public information) and Cramer (engineer) at the offices of Advanced Energy Systems in Los Angeles, California. Subjects: nuclear power, construction of the San Onofre plant, fuels, public attitudes, AEC, breeder reactors, radioactive waste (36 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 3 -
Description: Arvilla Warren
Dorothy Erick spoke with county recorder Arvilla Warren in Monticello, Utah. Subjects: personal background, importance of Steen's strike, uranium boom and California gold rush, requirements on mining claims, recorder's book, names of claims, patenting a claim, oil discovery at Anna and Big Indian, claim taxes and San Juan county, Charlie Steen, national press on uranium boom (34 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 4 -
Description: Lark Washburn
Clare Engle interviewed Washburn, a contractor for Union Carbide, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: mining in the 1940s, ventilation, staking claims with DeVar Shumway, Union Carbide, the company town of Uravan, church, school, minorities, AEC allocations, a lawsuit, mines in Wyoming and New Mexico, problems in assaying (48 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 5 -
Description: Ford and Ida M. Weber
The Webers spoke with Suzanne Simon in Hanksville, Utah. Subjects: parentage, old buildings, high school and family, mail delivery by horseback, sheep and cattle grazing, accidents, wild horses and other animals (32 pages).
Dates: 1971Container: Box 12, Folder 6 -
Description: A. L. Weisborn
Weisborn, of the Office of Mineral Exploration, U. S. Geological Survey, was interviewed by Nancy Hunsaker in Spokane, Washington. Subjects: personal background, uranium mining in Spokane area, discovery of Daybreak Mine, Silver Buckle Mine, future of uranium, John LeBret (14 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 7 -
Description: Chester A. Wright
Wright, whose family have been involved in mining for years, spoke with Patricia Ray in Los Angeles, California. Subjects: Uranium, Vanadium, and Carnotite mining, organization of independent miners, Navajo reservation, Babel detectors, Charlie Steen and Howard Balsely, grubstaking, changes in mining over the years, ore percentages, important people in the industry, early hardships (43 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 8 -
Description: L. B. Wright
Patricia Ray interviewed Wright, an indepdendent miner, in Garden Grove, California. Subjects: surface and aerial techniques, maintaining claims, mining co-ops, ore grades, Navajo workers, safety, equipment, medical consequences of mining, finding uranium, AEC aid to independent miners, rewards of mining (37 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 9 -
Description: George W. Wynecock
Nancy Hunsaker interviewed Wynecock, of the Midnite Mines, in Spokane, Washington. Subjects: personal background, LeBret Brothers' mine, uranium ore, the reservation during the boom (17 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 10 -
Description: Elton Youngblood
Richard Gibbs and Greg Brolin interviewed Youngblood, Assistant Manager for Operations of the Atomic Energy Commission, in Grand Junction, Colorado. Subjects: personal background, changes in ore buying policy, AEC exploration program, granting leases, lawsuits against the AEC (25 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 11 -
Description: Stephen W. Zoldak
Nancy Hunsaker interviewed Zoldak, of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in Spokane, Washington. Subjects: the Midnight Mine, uranium mining in the Spokane area, Silver Buckle Mining Company, problems of Indian miners, experience in the uranium industry, prospecting on the Spokane Indian Reservation, LeBret Brother's mill (15 pages).
Dates: 1970Container: Box 12, Folder 12
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Description: Master Files
Access retricted to manuscripts department personnel. See manuscripts curator for details.
Container: Box 13-29
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Mines and mineral resources--Utah
- Uranium industry--Utah
- Uranium miners--Utah
- Uranium mines and mining--Utah--Interviews
